The Use of Publicly Financed Sport Stadia in Urban Regeneration

Abstract

There have been many justifications arguing for, and against, the use of public funding for sport stadia. Proponents of public funding have used arguments ranging from tangible aspects such as the increased tax revenues of an urban metropolitan area to the intangible “feel good” aspects of the local citizenry, while opponents have used the same arguments as evidence that public funding is not justified. However, as this paper suggests, very few researchers and practitioners have studied the positive effects of sport stadia projects on urban regeneration, which have demonstrable tangible, and intangible, positive benefits to the urban areas.